The general-purpose digital computer is one of the most powerful and remarkable information processing tools ever invented. Indeed, the advent of the digital computer, and the proliferation of a global digital information network known as the Internet, has thrust the world headlong into what is now recognized by many analysts as an "information era" and an "information economy," in which the ability to access and process information in an effective manner is one of the most important forms of economic power.
The potential impact of the digital computer and the Internet on information distribution and processing is undeniably revolutionary. Yet, conventional software environments are generally organized around metaphors and principles from earlier eras. Text-based operating systems like Microsoft.RTM. DOS essentially treat the computer as a giant filing cabinet containing documents and applications. A strictly hierarchical file directory provides a rigid, tree-like structure for this digital file cabinet. Individual documents are the "leaves" of this tree hierarchy. The directory structure generally does not include or express relationships between leaves, and users generally access documents and applications individually, using the directory structure. Even the now ubiquitous graphical "desktop" computing environment, popularized for personal computers by the Apple Macintosh.RTM. and Microsoft Windows.RTM. operating systems, also simulates a traditional office environment. Individual documents and applications, represented by graphical icons, are displayed on the user's screen, to be accessed one-at-a-time. Once again, a strictly hierarchical, tree-like directory structure is imposed to organize the contents of the desktop.
Although the desktop and file cabinet metaphors have been commercially successful, the limitations and drawbacks of these traditional metaphors become clear when one considers the strikingly different way in which the world's other powerful information processing machine--the human brain--organizes information. Instead of being confined and limited to strictly hierarchical file directory structures, the human brain is thought to interconnect numerous pieces of information through flexible, non-hierarchical, associative networks. As those of skill and experience in the art are aware, it is often clumsy for users of traditional, prior art operating system interfaces to process multiple pieces of information if these pieces are contextually related in some way, but are stored in separate files and/or are associated with different application programs. Too often, the prior art of organizing information lead users to "misplace" information amongst hierarchical categories which often lose their relevance soon after the user creates them. Intended to assist users, traditional hierarchical structures and "desktop" metaphors compel users to organize their thought processes around their computer software, instead of the reverse. The inadequacy of "real-world," hierarchical metaphors for information management was recognized prior to the advent of the computer, but until now has not been successfully remedied.
The recent deluge of digital information bombarding everyday computer users from the Internet only heightens the need for a unified, simple information management method which works in concert with natural thought processes. Additionally, users' ready enthusiasm for the World Wide Web graphical "hypertext" component of the Internet demonstrates the appeal of associative, nonlinear data structures, in contrast to the limiting structure of computerized desktop metaphors. And yet, prior art web browsers and operating systems awkwardly compel users to navigate the associative, nondimensional structure of the World Wide Web using linear, or at best hierarchical user interfaces. They are also limited in their ability to provide differentiated content to different users of shared content.
What is desired is an effective methodology for organizing and processing pieces of interrelated information (or "thoughts") using a digital computer. The methodology should support flexible, associative networks (or "matrices") of digital thoughts, and not be limited to strict, tree hierarchies as are conventional, prior art technologies. A related goal is to create an intuitive and accessible scheme for graphically representing networks of thoughts, providing users with access to diverse types of information in a manner that maximizes access speed but minimizes navigational confusion. That methodology should be optimized to enable users to seamlessly manage, navigate, and share such matrices consisting of files and content stored both locally on digital information devices, as well as remotely via digital telecommunications networks such as local area networks, wide area networks, and public networks such as the Internet. A final goal is to facilitate relationships amongst users by flexibly distributing information about other users of shared content, and availing differentiated content to different groups of users.